FATCA’s Effective Date

FATCA’s Effective Date

US International Tax Counsel, Danielle Rolfes, confirmed on 28 February 2014 during remarks to the Federal Bar Association Section of Taxation meeting in Washington that the 1 July 2014 effective date for implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) will not be extended. She also said that FATCA is not going to be repealed.

This means that as of 1 July 2014 foreign financial institutions will have to have in place procedures for determining who is an US account holder when new accounts are opened. This includes any accounts opened for businesses that may be owned by US persons.

Ms. Rolfes also announced that, as of last Friday, the US had signed Intergovernmental Agreements with 22 countries and “initialed” agreements with 21 more. The names of the countries with which agreements have been initialed were not released.

At the same conference the deputy director of the IRS Criminal Division, Jeffrey Cooper, revealed that 3,000 US citizens expatriated during 2013, the highest number ever recorded. The previous record had been 1,781 in 2011. The number of expatriations in 2013 was triple the number in 2012. Apparently, Mr. Cooper’s office wants to determine why “people are making that choice”. The IRS Criminal Division appears to be comparing the list of expatriates published quarterly by the US Treasury against the names provided by Swiss Bank program.